Oceanic Flags 3

Just like all of the other inhabited continents, Oceania has a love of sport. Similar to the Olympics or the Commonwealth Games, the Pacific Games are held every four years and all nations within Oceania (except for Australia and New Zealand) take part. The Oceania Football Confederation comes under the umbrella of FIFA and is the means for qualification to the World Cup. Cricket is popular in the region and Australia is historically the most successful of all nations at that sport. Australia is also the most successful team in Rugby League (having won the World Cup a record 10 times) and it is the national sport of Papua New Guinea. The national sport in New Zealand, Samoa, Fiji and Tonga is Rugby Union and Australian Rules Football is popular all over Oceania, though it has failed to gain popularity elsewhere.

Find out a little more about some of the countries in Oceania by playing this quiz about them and their flags.

1.

This is the flag of which country, the only Pacific island country never to have been governed by a foreign power?

Tonga

Australia

Guam

Fiji

During the 18th century Tonga became known as the Friendly Islands because of the welcome given to Captain James Cook who arrived during the feast of inasi. Though once under the protection of Great Britain, Tonga has always been a self-governing state

2.

This is the flag of Papua New Guinea. It is marked by a Raggiana bird-of-paradise and five stars which represent which constellation?

The Plough

The Southern Cross

The Little Bear

The Southern Crown

The Southern Cross features on a total of five national flags. As well as Papua New Guinea it is also found on the flags of Australia, New Zealand, Samoa and Brazil

3.

This is the flag of which country; a collection of islands which includes Tahiti?

Northern Mariana Islands

French Polynesia

Solomon Islands

American Samoa

In the centre of the French Polynesian flag is a disc, the bottom half of which depicts the ocean and the top half the sun. Upon the ocean is a Polynesian canoe with a crew of five. The crew represents the five groups of islands which together make up the country

4.

The country represented by this flag was once known as Pleasant Island, and has the second smallest population (9,378) of an independent state. What is it called?

Guam

Fiji

Nauru

Australia

The only country with a smaller population is the Vatican City. Nauru also has a very small area of just 8.1 square miles (21 square km) making it the third smallest country after the Vatican City and Monaco

5.

This is the flag of which territory, whose capital city is Pago Pago and whose largest city is Tafuna?

American Samoa

Pitcairn Islands

Papua New Guinea

Palau

The flag shows a bald eagle, the symbol of America, clutching a Samoan club and fly-swat. The club represents the Samoan Government and the fly-swat traditional wisdom. The eagle represents the protection given to the islands by the USA

6.

This is the flag of which territory of New Zealand? It was originally called Union Islands by its European discoverers.

Pitcairn Islands

Tokelau

Solomon Islands

Niue

The islands became a British Protectorate during the 19th century. Control was handed over to New Zealand in 1926 and has remained with it ever since. In 1946 the name Tokelau, which means North Wind, was adopted

7.

To which country, named after a British explorer, does this flag belong?

Norfolk Island

Marshall Islands

Solomon Islands

Cook Islands

Captain James Cook visited the islands twice (in 1773 and in 1777) and named them the Hervey Islands. The name Cook Islands was not used until the 1820s when it made its first appearance in a Russian naval chart

8.

To which country does this flag belong?

Australia

Norfolk Islands

New Zealand

Marshall Islands

New Zealand was formerly a part of the Australian colony New South Wales. It became a separate colony in 1841, a British Dominion in 1907, and fully independent in 1947

9.

This is the flag of the Solomon Islands which have the fifth largest population of all the countries in Oceania. How many people live there?

5,230,000 people

523,000 people

5,230 people

523 people

A little over half a million people live in the Solomon Islands; roughly the same as in the English city of Leicester. Despite the large area covered by Oceania it has the lowest population of all the continents except Antarctica. The largest country, Australia, has 23 million inhabitants, whilst the second largest, Papua New Guinea has 7 million and the third largest, New Zealand has 4 million. Fiji is the fourth largest with a population of just 862,000

10.

Which country, originally named the Navigator Islands by European explorers, is represented by this flag?

Pitcairn Islands

Fiji

Marshall Islands

Samoa

In 1899 the Samoan Islands were shared between the Americans and the Germans. The German controlled islands were taken by New Zealand during World War One and became a colony until they won their independence in 1962. They are sometimes called Western Samoa to distinguish them from the American controlled islands of the same name